


emergence

by sunshine_captain



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Experimental Style, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Pre-Canon, Young James T. Kirk, Young Love, Young Spock (Star Trek)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 03:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14155368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshine_captain/pseuds/sunshine_captain
Summary: Jim and Spock meet while children and their friendship blossoms.





	emergence

**Author's Note:**

> To say the obvious, this isn't my usual style. It was originally going to be a text post on Tumblr, but it got longer and longer, and I got more fond of it. Finally I decided to make it a fic in an experimental style. So. Here we are! This began because I was obsessed with the image of little Jim trying to build a ship because he'd been reading about ancient sailing ships. Then Spock appeared.

Sarek has diplomatic business that requires he stay on earth for a while, a few months, but he has to stay in San Francisco to do it. Amanda wants Spock to experience more of earth, but not the city which he’s already seen plenty of, so she takes him out to the countryside (Iowa), to a little rental place right near the Kirk farm.

Spock is eleven and lonely because Amanda is busy working on the universal translator a lot of the time so he wanders over to behind the property next to theirs, where a little stream is flowing.

He finds little Jim Kirk crouched in the mud, armed with a book about ancient wooden sailing ships and a pile of sticks and string, trying to recreate one of the ships in miniature so he can sail it down the creek.

His little ship keeps collapsing so Spock comes over and without a word glances over the book then starts to help him.

They work in silence for over an hour and then set their little ship to sail , and it floats. They watch until it’s out of sight and then Jiim scratches his forehead, gets mud all over his face, and introduces himself.

Spock tries to teach Jim the Vulcan salute, successfully.

Then he tries to teach Jim how to say his last name, unsuccessfully.

It turns out that Spock and Amanda’s neighbors, the Kirks, have two sons. Jim is eight and lonely because his brother Sam just wants to hang out with and impress girls all the time now.

Spock comes over to Jim’s house every day, except for the days when Jim comes to his.

Jim shows Spock all his books. He’s interested in a new topic every week, and the week after ships it’s the ancient Earth period known as ‘the old west.’ He tells Spock how brave the sheriffs were for facing down gangs of outlaws all by themselves, his eyes glowing. They save everyone and make their towns safe. Jim wants to be that brave someday. It turns out he loves ancient Earth history.

Spock shows Jim his own books on planets and space and science. He talks seriously about how much there is out in the universe to discover. Spock wants to know everything. He tells Jim about the specimens he’s already collected at home on Vulcan.

Jim takes Spock to the patch of flowers he is growing with his mother, Winona, and Spock tells him of Amanda’s rose bushes, which he often helps tend.

They get lost in the field of corn for an afternoon.

Jim pulls a carrot out of the ground and grins broadly at Spock’s surprise. They rinse it off and Spock eats it. Jim wrinkles his nose in response when he tries to offer him a bite.

They sit together in Spock’s room and he patiently tries to show Jim how to speak and write Vulcan. Jim is terrible at writing it (which gives Spock the shameful urge to smile; his mother has been practicing for years and still hasn’t mastered it), but good at learning the spoken language. By the time Spock and his mother have to leave, he and Jim can have short conversations in Vulcan.

The night before Spock and Amanda have to go back to San Francisco to rejoin Sarek, Jim spends the night at their house. He brings a sleeping bag for himself, and Sam’s old one for Spock, in case Spock wants to sleep in one, too. Amanda is familiar with the human custom of sleepovers, and when Jim suggests he and Spock sleep in the backyard and watch the stars, she smiles and agrees.

They stare up at the stars, and Spock tries to point out where Vulcan is. Jim tells Spock all about Starfleet, which both his parents served in. They retired when their sons were born, but they’ve told Jim all about the things they saw and did.

Jim is even more passionate and excited about space than he is about Earth’s history. He tells Spock all about the places Starfleet officers go and the things they do. He declares he’s going to join Starfleet someday, and be a captain, and sail the stars.

When they say goodbye the next day, Jim hands Spock one of the flowers he and his mother have cultivated, along with some seeds so that he and Amanda can plant them and grow their own when they return to Vulcan, if they wish. Spock thinks about Jim’s words about Starfleet as he and Amanda travel to the transport station.

Jim doesn’t know he’s planted a very different kind of seed, and won’t know for many years.


End file.
